Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

I might have a biased view since I've never been a smoker, ever, all of my life. But this article is about a certain breed of smokers.

When I was at a local grocery store the other day, I noticed a morbidly obese man, probably around 400 pounds. He was limping along, as he had a lot of trouble moving around with all his extra weight. There he was standing in front of the store, and what does he do? He proceeds to light a cigarette. This is not the first time I've seen an image like this and why I thought I would write an article about it.

Tonight I had a support meeting for the YMCA's corporate weight-loss challenge. It was not your typical support meeting. There was physical activity through an intuitive scavenger hunt that had two teams pinned against each other testing our limits. All I can say is that today was my first day of physical activity since I changed my diet. I have no endurance at all!

I was talking with Rich Hubbard a couple of weeks back about my weight loss progress. To say the least things were going pretty slow. I was eating better but I lost the vigor from my previous motivations (the really embarrassing ones... My motivation to lose weight & My 2nd motivation to lose weight: A trip in Boston)

Rich recommended that I try the weight-loss challenge that kept him motivated and involved. I figured it was worth the shot. Plus it would get me out of the house and bring me face to face with other people that have similar goals.

I know a lot of you like to lose weight in the early spring in preparation for the beach in summer. Ideally you should want to lose weight in order to live a healthier life, but so many set goals to lose weight in order to look better. You may have unrealistic goals on how fast you can lose the weight and you might be putting a lot of extra stress on yourself.

Wellness challenges traditionally run in the fall and spring at many local YMCAs. Some participants think why lose weight now when Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up, the typical holidays that always brings lots of food. But losing weight now is better than waiting for the spring. This way, when Thanksgiving comes around, you'll be more prepared to eat healthier and because you're living a healthier lifestyle, you'll be less likely to overeat. And when you do cheat, it will be easier to keep your weight in check.

I've learned a lot the past couple years on the correct way to lose weight, mostly from trial and error. I was like many others out there, and struggled to try and lose weight but not succeed.

Finally I realized... you have to eat properly too, not just exercise. Before I lost the weight, I would exercise two to three times a week but did nothing to change my diet. When I think about how bad my diet was back then, I wonder how I could eat all that I did. I mean a good majority of the food I ate had a ton of sugar in them. I'm talking about candy bars, ice cream, frozen dinners, cookies, the list goes on and on!